content area assessment
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Chapter 7: Content Area Assessment
Ade Dwi Putra
Primary Purposes of Content Area Assessment
Monitor student progress– Formative assessments– Should guide instruction– Math test, “fist-to-five,” “Dame 5,”
projects, DIBELS, MIDE, Aimsweb, etc. Reclassification
– ACCESS, local assessments Accountability
– ACCESS, ISAT, PSAE, local assessments
Considerations for Content Area Instruction
English is learned through integrated language and content area instruction
Language of content areas varies depending on context (i.e. table)
Content area instruction needs scaffolded support for learning concepts– Visuals, graphic organizers, realia, cooperative
learning, etc. Content area teachers need to alter
instruction and alter assessment for ELLs
Adapting Content Area Assessments
Scaffold--don’t separate!– Rather than separating language and
content, provide contextual supports.Exhibits or projects, visual displays,
organized lists, tables/graphs, short answers.
Differentiate scoring.– Use one score for writing
conventions/grammar and a separate score for content.
Communicate criteria.– Tell students how their work will be
scored.
Thinking Schools Versus Standardized Schools
“part of the failure of the education system has been the failure to match instruction to the most effective way that children learn” (p. 168).
Balance between standards and “thinking” schools.
Basic Assessment Approaches
Determining Prior Knowledge– Look at table
on page 176. Create your own examples for assessing what 5th Grade students know about the Civil War.
NONVERBAL
RECOGNITION
STRUCTURED QUESTIONS
UNSTRUCTURED DISCUSSION
FREE RECALL
WORD ASSOCIATION
Basic Assessment Approaches
Assessing Conceptual Knowledge Semantic Maps
– Spider map– The Time Ladder Map– Contrast Overlay Map (aka Venn-Diagram)– The Cause/Effect Map
Be sure that students are familiar with the graphic organizer prior to assessment.
Technology can also be very helpful.– http://www.district87.org/staff/jensenp/Stud
ent%20Work.htm
Basic Assessment Approaches
Reading Comprehension– T-lists– Cloze test
Random deletion, purposive deletion, limited cloze
Basic Assessment Approaches
Vocabulary– Recognizing or generalizing attributes,
examples, and nonexamples.– Sensing and inferring relationship
Do the words freedom and jail go together? Why or why not?
Freedom is to slave as _____ is to student. Categorize/classify
– Applying concepts to a variety of contexts Freedom of a country, freedom from jail, freedom from
slavery, freedom of religion, etc.– Generating novel contexts
Use the word freedom and slavery in a sentence.
Dorath’s legs are at a steep angle.
Mohamed is scolding Peter.
Daichi’s arms are invisible.
Gilberto is pleading for someone to read with him.
Basic Assessment Approaches
Thinking Skills– Be sure to guide planning,
instruction and assessment with thinking skills in the content areas
– Comprehension– Analysis– Comparison– Synthesis– Evaluation
Basic Assessment Approaches
Writing to Integrate Language and Content– Provide writing prompts to mirror the
thinking processes.– 1. What does the number sentence tell
you?– 2. How did you solve the problem?– 3. Write a word problem.
Write the numbers.Write an operation and make a number
sentence.Now make a story to go with the question.
Science, Math, Social Studies
Declarative knowledge–T-lists, semantic maps, cloze tests
Procedural knowledge–Scoring rubrics, check lists, self-
assessment
General Guidelines for Content Area Assessment
Embed assessment into instruction Scaffold assessments with contextual
supports Assess procedural knowledge as well as
declarative knowledge Always assess prior knowledge Encourage self-assessment Use integrated assessments of language
and content; differentiate scoring Make criteria visible
Questions?